Modal CRAFTsynth Is a Digital, Monophonic, Portable Synthesizer For Just £79!!

Oh the irony. Today at the same time Modal announced the new CRAFTsynth I was literally 2 minutes walk away from their HQ in Bristol and was tempted to wander in. Had I done so, I'd possibly have been met by warm handshakes, a dry place to hang my sopping wet coat and the new CraftSynth.

As it was, I decided to brave the British weather and head home instead. However, that doesn't change the fact that Modal have released one of the more unexpectedly cool synthesizers we'e seen this year. CRAFTsynth is a self-assembly synthesizer that they tell us requires no soldering and can be put together in 10 minutes flat without the use of any complex or specialist tools. 

It has 2 oscillators per voice, oscillators with 6 destinations, and four types of wave forms (which are invertible). But that's not the best news yet. It's the price. It's less than a hundred quid. A fair bit less. CRAFTsynth is available for just £79 GBP with US and Euro pricing still to be announced.

 

Listen to CRAFTsynth in the first sound demo by Ty Unwin here:

Here's what our friends at Modal have to say about the new Modal CRAFTsynth:

Modal Electronics is delighted to announce Modal CRAFTsynth - we believe the World’s first no soldering, self assembly, monophonic USB or battery powered synthesiser with full MIDI support through a Class Compliant USB port. Assembled in less than 10 minutes, with no tools or specialist knowledge required (not suitable for under 13 years of age), CRAFTsynth brings real synthesiser performance to a new price point and an entirely new audience of synth players.

 Modal CRAFTsynth side view

Modal CRAFTsynth specification:

• Monophonic DSP based self assembly synthesiser, requires no soldering or electronics skills, tools or knowledge
• Eight front panel potentiometers for editing control, with two pages of editing functionality
• 2 oscillators per voice - sine, tri, saw, pwm, noise plus FM (OSC2 modulates pitch of OSC1), detune and fine detune for OSC2
• Mixer stage for OSC levels
• Unison / spread mode that splits the oscillators into four separate sub oscillators per oscillator giving a total of eight oscillators, de-tunable for a HUGE sound
• LFO with six destinations: VCA amplitude, filter cutoff, FM amount, OSC mix, PWM amount, pitch / frequency 
• Four LFO wave forms, each invertible: Sine, tri, saw, square
• LFO auto syncs to MIDI clock if present 
• Resonant low pass filter 
• 16 recallable EG presets for ease of use: Soon to be released, CRAFTapp will provide full editing control of EG’s for custom envelopes which can be stored within a patch
• 16 patch storage locations (manageable through Modal CRAFTapp)
• Playable touch panel interface with five note keys plus controls for scale and glide time - Scale changes between major, minor, diatonic and blues
• Delay and distortion (waveshaping overdrive, not bit crushing) effects
• Headphone and line output
• Class Compliant MIDI provided over USB connection to host computer or tablet
• Powered by USB or optional AA battery pack
• Modal CRAFTapp for iOS*, Macintosh and PC coming end of 2016 (subject to Apple AppStore conditions), Android support planned for Q1 2017.

Due to ship mid-December 2016, MSRP UK £79.99 including VAT, projected US and Euro pricing TBA.

So, just in time for Christmas, Modal's CRAFTsynth should be a firm favorite for synth lovers. At this price it's kind of a no-brainer. We'll be posting photos and videos as soon as they are released.